Our new translating friend sent this along as well: her translation of a recent post of Sandro Magister’s at his blog (which I repeatedly complain should be provided in English as well…I mean…a few paragraphs every other day or so..how hard is that?)

Anyway, the translation:

Apologia for Islamic terrorism

Signed by….

Take a guess where the following quotations come from:

“Many persons have been branded as terrorists, whereas in reality, they could simply be persons who are fighting for justice and their own human rights.” “Countries like Iraq or Palestine cannot fight a conventional war against enormously superior forces. Wherever, in a similar context, oppressed and subjugated people resort to non-conventional forms of war – human bombs are one type of weapon used in these cases – to label them as terrorists is abisolutely devoid of validity.”

“One can therefore look with understanding on the kamikaze who have realized (homicide/suicide) attacks against Israel or against the coalition of Western nations in Iraq. The fact is that these muhjaheddin are not trained killers or people who have a taste for violence, as some protagonists for instance in the Northern Ireland conflict, but are profoundly religious individuals who have usually had no practice in the arts of war and violence.”

“The fact is that whether in Iraq or Israel, justice has been trampled on, and so, the acts that have been labelled terrorism can be interpreted as legitimate warfare. In the end, the suffering of civilians can simply be considered – to use American jargon – collateral damage.”

All of these quotations were taken from issue number 5/2005 of the international theological journal Concilium which was dedicated completely to Islam, with articles by Hans Kueng, the Jesuit Thomas Michel (secretary for inter-religious dialog of the Society of Jesus), and other scholars, mostly Dutch, starting with the editors of the issue, Erik Borgman and Pim Valkenberg.

In its March 8 issue, the Osservatore Romano published an article critical of Borgman, who is a lay Dominican, for his “superficial reading” of John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio. But that is a venial sin compared to this apologia for homicidal mujahiddin who have caused massacres (including that of their fellow Muslims) in mosques, buses, schools and business places!